Finding and maintaining multiple communication channels is an ongoing objective for many mission programs and ministries.  Social media can be an effective platform for sharing the teachings and news of your ministry in our modern age. Incorporating a variety of popular social media and web 2.0 tools can assist with creating smooth, convenient pathways for communicating from the heart of your ministry.

The development of a social media “system” provides a solid communication channel. Here are several social media tools and technical tips you can employ to get the word out about the great work your ministry is engaged in.

Feeds

Social Oomph  – this service provides users with the ability to set up an account that connects with their twitter timeline. Users can write and schedule micro-posts called “tweets” that will be automatically posted to their Twitter Channel.   Tweets can be scheduled many months in advance. This is a great platform to generate reminders about special events, ongoing mission program announcements and updates, weekly/monthly meetings and more. Membership leaders can add meeting schedules at the beginning of the year/quarter and not be burdened with weekly or monthly updates.

Technical Tip- Have your twitter channel automatically feed the organization Facebook page using the   http://apps.facebook.com/twitter/  then add a #FB to any social oomph updates that should go out over the Facebook channel too. Now you have a double update with only one post!!

TwitterFeed – This service offers twitter users the ability to automatically update the Twitter channel timeline with each new blog post from their website.  This is especially useful if a ministry has multiple sites or blogs (i.e. youth group pages, childcare center blog, music ministry you tube channel)  Once a blog is entered into twitterfeed the service will check for updates and post to twitter with a link when the sites are updated.   This keeps the twitter channel up to date with all the news across the   different webpages of the ministry.  If a parishioner or community member only follows on twitter they will receive current news from all areas of the ministry without leadership having to post on multiple social media channels each time there is a blog update.

 Technical tip – Add daily scripture blog to your twitterfeed and followers will get a link to a new verse each day!

Data Collection

Google Drive – This service allows your organization to create data collection documents and embed them on your web page, blog or even share them directly thru email.  Organization members can respond directly to your custom form within the email and conveniently send it right back when they hit the submit button.   Your organization will then have a clear database that is easy to read and pull data from.

Technical tip – Be sure to note if you have created a public or private document.   Only collect non personal data when the document is public.  For instance you could send out a form asking what each member plans bring to the next fellowship dinner but do not include full name or phone numbers.

WordPress email subscription. –  This easy add on to your wordpress site offers you a nice data base of email subscriptions.  This mailing list can be used when planning to announce upcoming ministry events and special dates.   It is a convenient, downloadable list of organization members and interested community members that is readily available.

Technical tip – Keep information collected to minimum.  Name and email are the basics usually collected in this format.  If your goal is to obtain more specific data you will need to add security parameters. 

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Social media is an evolving communication medium that requires continuous updating and upgrading. Klearvue  is dedicated to bringing you information about these changes.  Be sure to subscribe to our email list so you will receive the latest news and information for your wordpress blog and social media communication channels.  Join us on Twitter and Facebook for daily updates, articles and more.  Feel free to contact us with questions too!!

 Coming Soon – Tutorials for your WordPress site and social media channels.

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